Take a leap of faith – Cliff jumping in Sai Kung Hong Kong

Now the weather is starting to get a little warmer, it’s a great time to make your nerves turn inside out and go cliff jumping in Sai Kung. The first time I went cliff jumping was actually in December and it was so cold that my lips turned purple (although admittedly, this situation seems to arise way more than it should). It’s quite a straightforward journey; if you’ve hiked to Sai Kung’s pristine beaches via the Maclehose trail before, you’ll have no problem getting to Sheung Luk stream. Leave early enough and you could even sneak in some cliff jumping on your way to Ham Tin beach and then just get a boat back to Sai Kung from there.

Reservoir on the hike down from Sai Wan Pavillion

Before you go, make sure you have your octopus card topped up! Also, consider a one piece instead of a bikini, mine kept coming off in the water which btw, is really quite clear, visibility HIGH. To get there, we got a green minibus to Sai Kung from the bottom of Ladies Market on Dundas Street. Journey time is around 40 minutes and once you arrive, find your way to the McDonalds on Chan Man Street to get the bus to Sai Wan. Ride this bus until the last stop (Sai Wan Pavillion) and hike down to the village. The walk should only take you about half an hour seeing as it’s mostly downhill which is great until you remember that you’re going to be doing the hike in reverse on the way back. There are a couple of restaurants for you to get food etc here. I wouldn’t recommend getting anything too heavy seeing as your stomach is probably going to be doing flips all over the place in the not so distance future.

Beach at Sai Wan Village

This is not an egg

From the restaurants, veer towards the left of the beach where you’ll probably see people crossing a stream. DO NOT CROSS THE STREAM! Keep going left until you hit a helipad (no joke) and then go down the small path to the right of the helipad. Continue down this path for about 8 minutes, you’ll pass some allotment gardens and the stream will always be to your right. You’ll eventually get to Sheung Luk stream which is made up of 3 pools of gorgeous fresh water. You have to use your hands and feet to help you get all the way over to the cliff jumping spot, it’s no trouble for most people. Just don’t lose your balance.

The cliff is about 8m high and boy, I’m not usually scared of heights but I guess it’s the knowing that I’m going to be hurling myself off this one that makes this an exception. I could share some advice here about how to jump you know, ‘breathe,’ ‘mind over body,’ all that but I’ve found that everyone has a different way of dealing with the OMFG feeling before they take that leap of faith and fling themselves into the air. Just find what works for you. However, I will say that the stream gets quite a lot of passers-by and you DO NOT want to gather an audience of randomers all looking up at you intently, chanting at you to jump and taking the liberty to count down from 20/10/3. No pressure right.

Even just looking at this photo gives me the heebie jeebies

If you know of any other cool spots to cliff jump in Hong Kong please let me know! Good luck if you decide to check out this one.